Picture is worth a 1000 words
by SouthernRocker
Summary: Rory has a class project to do and it will show a whole new side of her.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmore Girls or any of the characters.

Chapter One

Rory sat in her last period waiting for the teacher. This class seemed to go by the slower than any of her others. It might be due to the fact that there was nobody in there to talk to, except for Madeline. Of course Tristan was in there, but trying to start a conversation with him was like trying to start a fire in a rain storm. Another reason that the class was so slow was because they never learned anything. So Rory would have to sit for what felt like an eternity with Tristan staring at her and get nothing out of it except a funny feeling in her stomach.

"What are you thinking Mary?" Tristan ask from behind her.

"Nothing for you to worry about." Rory said turning so that she half faced him.

"Its alright if you want to keep your daydreams about me to yourself." He replied with a smirk.

Rory turned to face the front because Mrs. Mills came in and Rory was thankful for it. Tristan hadn't been that far off she had daydreams about him before she broke up with Dean and even more now that she was single.

"Alright class I have a special assignment for you today." Mrs. Mills said Rory had to stop herself from groaning.

"I want you to pick the two people who know you best and have them create a picture slide show of your life. They will present it to the class and tell us about each picture. This will be due next Wednesday. I'm giving you the weekend to make sure it's done so take a minute and think of who you want."

Rory just shook her head. She would get Lane and try and sweet talk Jess into it too. She could feel Tristan looking at her again. Sometimes she wandered what he was thinking about when he stared at her.

"Alright when I call your name tell me your two picks."

"Madeline…."

"Louise Grant and Pairs Geller." Madeline answered not looking up from her nail file.

"Tristan…"

"Finn Morgan and Colin." Tristan had know them since they were little kids and he knew that they wouldn't mind doing the project for two reasons, one was a chance to get out of class, two the chance to embarrass him.

"Rory…"

Rory was about to open her mouth when Mrs. Mill continued, "I ran into your mother the other day and she told me who you would pick."

"Really and what names did she tell you?" Rory ask nervously.

"She told me not to tell you." Mrs. Mills smiled and called out the next name. For the rest off the period Rory sat and thought of all the people her mother could have picked. Knowing her mom she told Mrs. Mills that Kert and Mrs. Patty would make the slide show.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter. I hope that everyone will like these two chapters. Sorry about any grammar problems that you might encounter.

Chapter Two

Rory walked into the newspaper room after the last bell. Pairs had called a meeting but it was ok. Lorelai was picking Rory up from school anyway so they could shop before going to an early Friday dinner.

Madeline was telling Paris about the project when Rory came in.

"That's the dumbest idea I have ever heard," Pairs ranted, "The only reason she is doing it is because she doesn't want to grade papers."

"Are you going to do it or not?"

"Of course if Louise does it by herself who knows what kind of pictures she'll use. You both would probably get suspended."

"They can't be worse than what Tristan's gonna have." Rory said joining the conversation.

"Colin and Finn." Pairs stated more than ask.

"Yeah."

"Then I will at least get some laughs out of this then," Pairs said, "Lets start the meeting."

Forty minutes and a lot of Pairs yelling later Rory walked out of Chilton and got into her moms jeep.

"Hey kid how was school?" Lorelai ask pulling out of the Chilton parking lot.

"Pretty good, found out about a project I have." Rory said and waited.

"That's cool." Lorelai said completely oblivious.

"Mom who did your tell her was going to do my project?"

"Don't worry about it. I've been getting reports from them everyday and your project is more than half done." Lorelia assured.

"So you're not going to tell me."

"You'll find out Wednesday Lorelai returned her attention to the road, not saying another word about the project.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

Chapter Three

Wednesday finally came after what seemed like an eternity. Rory had ask her mom everyday, sometimes twice a day, who she had chosen. She had even tried to bribe her, but still Lorelai refused to tell her anything.

Rory was at her locker after first when Tristan came up to her.

"So Mary do you have some pictures for me." He smirked.

"No." Rory replied, she had figured out the less words she exchanged with him the less she would fall for him. At least she hoped that's the way it worked. She really didn't need to fall for Tristan.

"I mean for me to look at in private I wouldn't want to you to show that type of thing to a class full of people." Tristan smirked even more.

The bell rang as Rory was about to reply. She shook her head and headed for class. The entire way she tried not to think about how her cheeks had flushed when Tristan made his comment about her pictures.

Tristan smiled to himself as he walked away from Rory's locker. He had noticed how she had blushed when he ask for her picture. Sometimes he would just sit in class and stare at her. He would dream up scenarios of how he could get Rory to understand how he felt about her. For the longest time he had been head over heals in love with Rory. It had just taken him awhile to figure it out. Tristan had never been in love. There had been girls he cared about, but the feeling he had for Rory were deeper than anything he had ever felt.

"You ready for today?" Colin asks when Tristan sat down next to him.

"Yeah mate wait till you see the pictures we dug up of you." Finn said coming in.

"Please tell me you two didn't put anything to embarrassing in it." Tristan said.

"Don't worry we know that your Mary is in that class, we didn't put any embarrassing pictures in it." Colin said.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well we all know that you like her." Colin said.

"Yeah, mate it is a bit obvious."

"Except to her." Colin added.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Tristan denied, not quiet ready to admit his feelings to his friends.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmore Girls.

Alright so I'm going to show the people that Lorelai picked for Rory. I haven't gotten to the pictures yet, but they are coming really soon. Thanks for the reviews. Hope you all like this chapter.

Chapter Four

Rory twisted her hands nervously because everyone else had their presenters with them. All day she had been waiting for some random Stars Hallow resident to show up, yet no one had.

"Alright let's start settling down." Mrs. Mills said, "We're about to start."

A student arrived at the door, "Excuse me Mrs. Mills they need to see you in the head masters office."

"Tell them I'll be right down," Mrs. Mills said, "Try and keep the noise down to a mild roar."

"Aren't you missing something?" Paris asked sitting in front of Rory.

"What?" Rory asked she was too worried to play mind games with Pairs.

"Your friends aren't here yet."

Before Rory could answer the classroom door opened and figuring it was Mrs. Mills returning, Rory didn't look.

"Are we in the right class?" A male voice asked. Rory's head shot up upon hearing the voice.

"No way." Rory muttered to herself in disbelief.

"What are you two doing here?" Rory asked standing not paying attention to the rest of the class.

"Told you Kevin. I knew this was the right class room."

"Whatever," Kevin said looking at Rory, "We're your presenters. I mean we _do_ know more about you than anybody else in the world."

"I'm gonna get mom for this." Rory said under her breath.

"Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna give Paul and me a hug?" Kevin asked holding out his arms.

Rory shook her head, but walked over to him. Kevin picked Rory up as he hugged her and swung her around ended up front of Paul. Paul grabbed her and she wrapped arms around his neck holding on to him tightly.

"Why don't you ever wear this out fit for me?" Paul asked after he let Rory go and looked at her uniform.

"She wears it for me all the time." Kevin grinned.

"Well normally when she's with me she doesn't wear anything." Paul grinned back, wrapping an arm around Rory.

"Let's sit down before Mrs. Mills comes back." Rory said pulling the guys to her seat. They sat in the two empty desks on each side of her.

Tristan was stunned to say the least. He didn't know who he had expected to come with Rory's pictures, but those two guys definitely weren't it. They were both his height and about his build. The one Rory had called Kevin had just black hair and the other one had brown hair. They were too far away to tell what color their eyes were.

Needless to say when the guys had started talking about Rory wearing nothing he felt a sink hole open in the pit of his stomach, his fist had balled up and he thought about punching the guy. When his arm had wrapped around Rory he gave serious consideration to breaking it.

When had he started to care so much about Rory? He knew that he liked her, but not to the point of hating anyone touching her. This was going to be a interesting period.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmore Girl.

Chapter Five

Mrs. Mills returned a few minutes later.

"Alright everybody, it is time to start with the presentations. Madeline, why don't you come on up and tell us who your friends are."

Madeline stood up and walked to the front of the class with Pairs and Louise in tow. Their presentation was fairly normal. Some pictures of Madeline as a kid and a few of her at parties. All of the other kid's presentations were basically the same.

"Tristan you're next." Mrs. Mills said.

"This is Colin and Finn" Tristan said before taking his seat again.

Rory couldn't help but smile at the first picture. It was of a little blonde boy playing on a slide with a miniature version of Finn.

The next picture was of a thirteen year old Tristan in a tuxedo, he was standing next to an old man with the same sparkling blue eyes.

"This was taken during a charity event." Colin said.

"And that dashing older gentleman is Tristan's grandfather." Finn added with a smile.

The next picture was of Tristan, Colin and Finn all standing outside of a coffee shop laughing.

"We were in Italy last summer when this was taken."

The next few pictures were of the guys in front of monuments and things like that. Rory was a bit shocked to say the least. She had expected all of the pictures to be of Tristan partying and doing dumb things. There hadn't even been one picture of Tristan with a girl.

He had looked so happy with his grandfather; Rory had never seen him look happy around a family member. Even when he talked about them he looked sad or mad. And the pictures of him in Italy surprised Rory too. The fact that he had even gone to the monuments was something that she did not expect. Tristan over seas was one none stop party in Rory's mind, but maybe she was wrong it wouldn't be the first time. The new images of him were in no way assisting Rory in fighting her feelings for him.

"Rory, would you please go next." Mrs. Mills broke Rory away from her thoughts.

"Sure." Rory went to the front of the class with Paul and Kevin right behind her.

"These are my friends Paul and Kevin." Rory said and was about to elaborate when Kevin cut her off.

"Don't worry about telling them how we know each other Rory, Paul and I already have a plan for explaining that." He said with a grin. Rory returned to her seat knowing that whatever pictures they showed she was not going to like it.

"We are going to use our pictures to kind of tell a story. The evolution of Rory Gilmore you could call it." Paul said.

"The Rory that you all know is a sweet, quiet, smart school girl." Kevin added.

"That is part of Rory, but not the fun part." Paul said instantly, they obviously had practiced what to say.

"This is the fun Rory." They stated in unison as a picture appeared on the screen. The class all gasp in one collective breath. Rory felt like covering her face or maybe even crawling under the desk.

_**Author's Note:**_ Thanks for all the reviews. I'm sorry if the Tristan pictures were not what you thought they would be, but it helps the story later on. Sorry to leave this chapter at such a cliff hanger, but I hope to up date again sometime this weekend if everything goes well. Sorry for any grammar problems that you might have seen my beta is currently ill. Thanks again and please review.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own the Gilmore Girls.

Sorry it has taken me so long to update this, but I ran into some technical problems namely my computer dieing on me. I hope that you like this new chapter. With any luck I will be able to make up for lost time and have my next and final chapter up by the end of the weekend. Thanks for all the reviews and please let me know what you think about this chapter. Once again sorry for any grammar problems that you might find.

Chapter 6

There she was Rory Gilmore, Tristan's Mary, in a pair of tight hip huggers, what looked like a halter top that was covered by a leather jacket. But that wasn't the most shocking thing to Tristan. It was the look in her eyes. The come and get me smirk that seemed to light up her eyes.

"This was just a picture that we wanted to show you as a warm up." Paul smiled over at Rory, who was glaring at him.

"The next picture was taken right after Rory's first act of deviancy." Kevin explained.

The picture was of Rory at about 14 and she was soaking wet. Paul, who was just as wet had one arm around Rory, he was laughing so hard he was about to fall down from the look of things.

"We had thrown eggs at a guy named Taylor Dosey. And he was chasing up." Kevin explained.

"We were running away and fell off the wooden bridge in Stars Hallow trying to avoid him." Paul added.

Rory had to smile. Luke had looked at them like they were crazy when they had came in the dinner soaking wet. But when he found out what they had done he gave them all free pie.

"Alright, this was just a random picture that we took one day. We were hanging out at the town gazebo." Paul said bringing up the next picture.

Paul was sitting in the gazebo bench with Rory on his lap. They were smiling at the camera with their faces pressed together.

"Don't they look sweet, but my favorite picture is next." Kevin changed the slide.

Rory was dancing with Kevin, dancing very close to Kevin actually. There was something in Kevin's hand that resembled a bottle, but he was holding it in a weird way.

"What was the song you were dancing to?" Paul asked Kevin.

"I really can't remember, but I know that I liked it." Kevin grinned over at Rory, who once again had her face buried in her hands.

"This is the last picture we have." One of the guys said.

All three of them were setting on Luke's counter. Rory had her legs thrown over Kevin's and she was in between Paul's legs with her back pressed against his chest.

"Rory's mom, Lorelai took this just a few weeks ago." Paul explained.

"She lost coffee privileges for the rest of the day because Luke, the diner owner, didn't want us on the counter. But Lorelai just went ahead and told us to do it anyway." Kevin told the class.

Rory remembered that day. Lorelai had tried every trick to get coffee from Luke. Eventually, she had convinced Paul and Kevin to pretend to fight. When Luke went outside to break it up she had grabbed two cups of coffee.

"Thank you for that wonderful presentation and the new insights into Rory's life." Mrs. Mills said.

Kevin and Mark smiled and took their seats to watch the final kids go up. Rory gave them a mean look, but couldn't help smiling at them. They were her best friends after all and they did bring back some really good memories. Who knows maybe it was time for the Chilton students to see the other side of her anyway.

Tristan like the rest of the class was stunned. He barely paid any attention to the last couple of kids' presentations. He had never seen that side of Rory, never even imagined it. Maybe his label of Mary wasn't so right after all. He felt something that was rare for him, jealousy. Even if Rory wasn't dating one of the guys they saw a side of her that he hadn't even known existed. The really odd thing was he felt no different about her. If anything he liked her more. She would always be his Mary, no matter how she acted around her friends.

The bell finally rang and Tristan watched Rory walk out with her friends. Tristan's attention didn't go unnoticed by Kevin. He had seen how interested the blonde boy was in Rory's pictures and how Rory had smiled at the pictures the guys two friends had shown. Maybe there was something going on with Rory that he and Paul didn't know about.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

Alright this is my final chapter. I real hope that everybody likes it. Thank you so much for the reviews and please give me more. Sorry for any problems that you might find.

Chapter 7

The café was one of the few places that Tristan could go to think. It was always inviting and warm, two things that he always wanted more of in his life. Colin and Finn had came to his house and insisted that they go out to lunch. Tristan had agreed without much of a fight, after all who wants to stay in a cold empty mansion.

They had Thursday and Friday out of school, teacher workdays or something like that. Yesterday had been the day of Mr. Mills's presentations. Colin and Finn had picked the right pictures in his opinion, especially the one with his Grandfather.

"So Gilmore's pictures were different that expected." Colin said from the other side of the booth.

"Yeah." Was all Tristan could say.

"She looked hot." Finn said. Normally he would still be asleep at this time when there was not school, but he wanted to check on his friend. Tristan had just found out that his Mary wasn't as pure as everyone thought.

"Wonder if those guys live in her town?" Tristan chose to ignore Finn's comment although he did agree with him.

"Maybe Pairs knows. Would you like to call and ask her?" Colin suggested. He loved it when Tristan got nervous, but tried to act cool."

"NO!" Was the quick answer.

"Ok mate let's cut to the chase. Do you like this girl?"

"Yes." Tristan replied in a low voice.

"Then tell her." Colin said.

"And not in that I'm such a hunk, pretty boy, I smirk you melt way either." Finn advised.

"If she doesn't feel the same?" Tristan voiced his worse fear.

"Well at least you tried."

"If you don't take the risk you'll never know mate."

"And just when am I going to deliver this heart felt confession?" Tristan was not about to do it in school. Rory would probably reject him for embarrassing her.

"How about today?" Colin suggested.

"Yeah, in an intimate friendly café." Finn added.

"And how am I supposed to get her to one of those?"

"With ease considering that she just walked in." Colin said. He and Finn had seen her walk in and silently agreed it was the right time.

"What?!" Tristan looked over and saw Rory walking to a booth behind them. Tristan took a breath and decided that his friends were right.

"Hey Mary, what are you doing here?" Rory stopped next to the booth clearly she hadn't been expecting him to be there.

"Hey. I'm supposed to get a booth while the guys park the car." Rory said. She had thought a lot about Tristan last night. Maybe it was because Kevin and Paul had asked her if they had something going. After a lot of thought Rory realized that she liked Tristan and there wasn't anything that she could do about it. She would happily give them a chance that is if he didn't ask her out like a jerk.

Before anyone could speak again Paul and Kevin came in. They saw who Rory was talking to and smiled. This was perfect timing.

"Hey Rory." Kevin said taking a place next to her while Paul went to the other side.

"Guys these are some Chilton people." Rory tried to sound casual when inside she was freaking out.

"Yeah, we saw your pictures and stuff yesterday." Paul smiled.

"Oh that reminds me," Finn said looking at Kevin, "Was that a Fosters in your hand when you were dancing with Rory."

"Yeah how did you know?"

"I've spent lots of time with that bottle my friend." Finn said causing everyone to laugh.

"Kevin you know what I've got to get that thing." Paul said suddenly.

"Oh yeah do they close early today?"

"They might, we should go check." Paul said.

Rory was confused. What were they talking about?

"I know the place you're talking about." Finn suddenly chimed.

"Really, then why don't you come with us so we don't get lost?" Kevin invited.

"Gladly, come on Colin." Finn stood up with Colin behind him. Tristan, who was just as lost as Rory, moved to get up.

"There's no need for you to come, mate." Finn said to him.

"Rory you should just stay too. We'll be back soon." Kevin said practically pushed Rory into the booth.

Before Tristan or Rory could speak or even figure out what was going on their friends were gone. For a few moments neither spoke.

It was Tristan who finally broke the silence, "So how do you know those two?"

"We met at my Grandmother's Christmas party when we were little kids. We were the only kids there so naturally we talked and have been friends ever since." Rory had liked Emily's Christmas parties since then.

"Have you ever dated?" Tristan asked trying to sound casual.

"No," Rory answered quickly, "That would be really weird."

Tristan felt a burst of hope. The guys didn't live in Stars Hallow if they met at the Gilmores. And Rory hadn't dated them or want to date them from what she said.

Rory felt courage. He was interested in whether or not she had dated one of the guys. Maybe it was from hanging around with Paul and Kevin that gave her the feeling that she could do crazy things, like throw eggs at Taylor.

"Tristan do you like me?"

He was taken a back. He had never thought Rory would ask him that. He remembered what Finn had told him. Tristan looked right into Rory's blue eyes and said simply, "Yes."

"Alright then I think you should know that I like you too." Rory said looking right back at him.

Tristan wanted to jump up and kiss her, but he settled for a big smile and taking her hand, which was lying on the table.

"Why don't I pick you up tonight at 7 we can see a movie or something?" Tristan ask.

"Sure." Rory answered. There was a funny feeling in her stomach, it had started the minute Tristan took her hand in his. They just sat for a minute smiling at each other. Then there was a flash. Both looked up to see their friends smiling at them.

Paul handed Rory his digital camera. There was a picture of Rory and Tristan. You could see the happiness between the two them. There weren't enough words to describe how Rory felt about the picture. The two of them setting there holding hands just looked right.

"You know Mary a picture is worth a thousand words." Tristan said.


End file.
